This post to kfm-devel yesterday is important to bring up. Tests are useless if nobody runs them an fixes failures. Hopefully the khtml developers will be embarrassed enough by this post to/. + the mailing list message to stop and fix the problems.
Will the other projects? For that matter will kde clean this up? Fixing failing tests is often hard and boring.
Right now Wine support on *bsd is hit and miss. 90+% of the Wine developers only run Linux. They are not opposed to any other Unix, but they do nothing to help. Someone trying to get Wine running on *BSD will send a patch in, which will be accepted, but hours latter (sometimes before) some other patch is accepted in a different area that breaks Wine again.
Supporting OSX should clean a lot of this up. Just running on two platforms officially will force them to keep the code cleaner. This will make Wine useful to the other BSDs. Should also help Solaris support, which I understand works less often than *BSD.
This is not a company making a GUI on top of Wine. This is a company that hired the most active WINE developers and told them to focus on getting programing like Microsoft Office and iTunes working in Wine. They provide support for anyone who wants to use Wine but needs help. This includes those looking for an easy port to of their Windows Application to Linux, and those who just want to see more applications work on Linux that are now Windows only.
True it only works with certain programs. However there are more are more all the time.
Who cares? You rarely convert cubits to furlongs. (cubits are even part of the US system, they come from the Bible) I often convert divide a foot into thirds, which the US system does well, while the metric system doesn't.
Perhaps you should grow 2 more fingers. A base 12 system is much nicer to work with. You are used to a base 10 system, because you have 10 fingers.
When doing a launch you want to be on the equator, and high. (for typical orbits, there are orbits where you want to be other places, but I'll ignore them for not) Russia doesn't come close to the equator. Siberia is closer to the North Pole than the Equator.
No mountain in Russia is big enough to make up for the distance from the equator. Russia does however have many submarines which can surface at any on the ocean, including the equator. (Not to mention getting a launch pad built on a mountain, and getting the rocket there isn't easy)
As for why subs, not ships, remember this goes back to the cold war. Ships are easy to track, spy satellites can see them, even after images are degraded to civilian levels. Submarines often stay underwater for 6 months at a time. Communication is generally done by ELF (extra low frequency - 5-60Hz or so) radios which are hard to do directional location on. In the event of a real war they can destroy the enemy after your country was destroyed. Mutually assured destruction, and even if you destroy all the land based missiles before they can launch there is enough plenty of time for the sub to get revenge. (Thank God it never came to that)
If Russia was to start a launch pad from scratch they would consider doing it on a ship. However they already have the subs.
The indies beat the internet at the old stuff game.
They have no shipping delay. Consider this: I ordered something Friday that I want, and today (5 days latter) it hasn't arrived yet! This is typical, they tell me not to worry about the order for more than 5 weeks yet! I want my order today.
Indies have it now. Your NES controller doesn't work? You could order one from the net, but you won't be playing head to head contra with your roommate tonight if you do. Drive to the indie in town and you have it in time for a game tonight.
That is something the internet cannot match. (At least not until airlines bring the price of same day shipping down a couple orders of magnitude)
Perhaps you need a lession in capitalism... Sure they used to supply those indie games, the problem is you were the only one buying them. Combine that with the hastels they went through to get them, and there was no money to be made there despite the higher prices.
I used to... The company has gone downhill since Sam Walton died though.
Back in the day they ran all the overpriced local stores with poor service out of town. Suddenly it wasn't worth my while to drive 30 miles to the nearest mall to do my shopping. (doing it all in one day) Everyone talks about the small business WalMart kills, but I recall getting bad service from them, so I was happy to see them gone. (Those few businesses that gave good service survived) They still have this part down.
Back in the day they used to be the "buy American" store. They worked with companies to get the same stuff as China made, made closer to home, by people I want to help. Now they are sending every supplier to China, despite China's evil practices. (Their human rights record stinks)
WalMart is not politically correct. Target won't sell guns because some people don't like them, WalMart does (as gun owner I having a source of Guns in town someplace that is open when I'm not at work). Target won't allow youth groups to hold a car-wash in the parking lot, WalMart does.
There are a few other things that WalMart is doing wrong, but I can't recall them right now.
In short, WalMart used to be a complete friend of your community. Now they are going downhill.
Script kiddies generally get bored before they get a working virus. If indeed the can follow the instructions to begin with.
Most viruses these days are written by organized crime. (Actually worm or trojan might be better terms) They create networks of infected computers, and then sell the network. spam is often sent from infected machines. There are a few other ways to earn money from an infected machine, but spam is the money maker.
Actually the size of the phone is dictated by comfort these days. The battery is the largest part of any phone, but with today's technology it will often go for days on a charge, which is more than most people (plug it in every night) need. Smaller phones are not happening because smaller phones don't fit in large hands well, and the buttons are already hard enough for the elderly to hit. They cannot make phones any smaller without a breakthrough of some sort.
Batteries come in standard sizes. (Many of them to choose from, but still standard) There is plenty of room for most of that "useless crap" in the case of the phone, and often there isn't a standard size battery that could take up the rest. The camera is the only thing that takes up any significant room, most of the other features are implemented on a chip. Even the camera can often fit behind the speaker where the batteries will not fit. (But remember each phone is different so this generalization will not apply to all of them)
Licensing of QT is not an issue if your company is any good at all. Standard procedure when doing these negotiations is to get a little clause "If you go out of business we get full rights". (Obviously written by a lawyer so it is more complex, but that is the idea)
QT doesn't even have a per-product shipped clause like most things, so it is less restrictive that most licenses.
Cost might be an issue, but you need to consider the cost of dealing with the alternatives if you consider it. GTK is free, but if it is more work to use, your total costs may be higher. (I don't know GTK so I don't know if this is true or not)
I don't want to carry all that every day. I just want it all with me.
Sometimes I want to take a picture, but most days I don't, so I never have a camera nearby. It would be nice if my phone had a useful camera. (It doesn't. I'd be happy with a single focus lens like the old 110 I had as a kid, but the resolution is too poor to take useful snapshots)
I don't want a separate game machine, I just want something I can waste 5 minutes on when I'm unexpectedly told to wait.
I don't want a separate PDA, I just want something that will remind me of my appointments, and allows me to easily enter more. (My current phone does the former, but not the latter)
I don't want an ebook, I just want a few (changeable) books around that I can read when I have a few minutes to kill. (see games above)
I never remember everything, and my pockets don't have room for it all either. Find a convergence that works I'd I'll use it. Sadly the implementation of convergence as it exists today is lacking. However it isn't the fault of convergence, it is the implementers' fault. I wish Apple would get into the cell phone market, and show everyone how to do it.
By far The daily WTF (Despite the name it is work safe). I check that every morning, and if I still haven't won I know I'm safe to program today, otherwise I change careers to something that doesn't involve computers.
It is important to point out that those old books are the old knowledge, but old knowledge wasn't better than ours today. Those books will teach you how to do things that have strong odds of killing you. Every reminder of safety is important, particularly when your instructions ignore them, so you have to consider it all of yourself.
There is something wrong with the geek who doesn't love that catalog and buy books from them once in a while. Always something interesting, even if you never build the projects. (Note, if you don't order you won't get the next catalog, so beware...)
There is something far more important than campaign contributions that you do control: votes. Those contributions are used to buy ads on TV and radio. Great as far as it goes, but there is no easy way to translate them into votes which is what they want.
People out on the street talking to strangers is far more effective than commercials, and it is something you can do. So find out how your representatives voted on the issue. Then decide if there is someone who is likely to be better running. (Consider third parties too!) Then every night knock on as bunch of doors in the neighborhood (with gerrymandering you need to be careful to keep in the right district...) and talk to your neighbors. If you are a good speaker and have the facts you could personally be enough to change the election.
Consider doing this as part of the campaign. That is join a party and go to all the meetings. Generally only 10-20 people attend in any area, and these are the people who make the decisions. Join with them, and you have a lot of power. The politicians will come to you (mostly for your help in getting elected), which is a perfect chance to talk to them about issues!
Remember votes count, nothing else. Money is just a proxy for votes, but it isn't a perfect proxy, nor even very good.
Depends on the petition. In all cases your signature is worth less than a residents, and in fact the presence of your signature lowers the influence of the petition. So you if you are out of state you should never sign a petition aimed at those in state. If you are in state you should make sure there that nobody out of state signs it. (and make sure it is honest, even though it is hard to detect cheaters, if it is detected your entire causes is lost)
If you are out of state your voice may or may not count. Any Representative considering a run for president in the near future will treat your voice as just less than the residents, because you are likely to remember. Representatives who don't plan on going that far will vary, most will forward your communication to your representative, and otherwise ignore it. Some will collect statistics on your position. These statistics are useful, if they have not opinion and their locals don't have a big position either way they will consider your opinion.
Don't forget that there is no law preventing you from making a contribution to an out of state candidate. So if someone really makes you mad you can help defeat them next time. Though in general your efforts are best focused close to home.
The most important thing to do is talk to your neighbors about the issue. If you come off as a reasonable person with a reasonable opinion they will consider the issue next time they vote. Tattooed freaks need not applie, no matter how smart you are - your first impression will kill you. (This is less so than in the past, but it is something to consider)
The problem is there are two different common senses in effect. One the one hand we know gravity exists, so common sense says it should exists everywhere. On the other hand there is no explination to account for gravity (We can measure it, but cannot explain it), and the some theories that when looked at alone seem to imply that gravity doesn't apply.
So they have proved one side right, but only at the expense of making some otherwise well tested theories fail.
Gravity is easy for the uneducated masses to understand. (by which I mean though without a degree in physics) It makes not sense to those who try to understand it more than the 'uneducated masses'.
Considering the relative efficiency of cars vs humans, abusing resources is right. You will need a lot more energy from food than you car burns. That is at a normal aerobic run pace, the Cheeta can to 60 mph, but only for a short anaerobic sprint, which is an order of magnitude less efficient yet.
Now if you were going to bike to work you might have a chance, so long as you were willing to stick to aerobic speeds. I'm not a doctor, but I suspect that to increase aerobic speeds you need to work on the circulation system first, not muscles. (the heart is a muscle, but only a small part of the system)
Get a car that runs on ethanol/biodiesel if you don't want to abuse resources - in the end it is more efficient than exercise. (but you won't live as long)
You cannot be a semi-pro, either you are a professional, or you are not.
You appear to have missunderstood the definition of professional. A professional is someone who gets paid to do something, an amateur is someone who does it as a hobby. Professionals have been trying to push your view that amateur is someone who isn't good, while a professional is good, but that does not follow. A good amateur doing something out of love will get better results than the professional who needs to make money. (Time is money, the pro doesn't have time to set up some of the best shots)
North Korea is not sane. Doesn't matter if the defense will work or not, because there is no reason to assume they won't attack if we treat them right.
I have not examined the F22 vs drone issue in details, so I'm not going to comment. You could be right. I elect politicians to make these decisions for me, but sadly many are more interested in pork for their area than sound government. So I have no idea if you are correct.
Not being in the military I'm not qualified to pass judgment on the merits of any program. I prefer to set goals and let experts fill them. In this case, the goal is to keep the US (and allies, but second to the US) from being attacked. I want them to do it as cheaply as possible, but no cheaper.
For me to say "scrap program X" would be foolish. I don't know the numbers. In fact some of the numbers I need to make the decision are rightfully classified. At some point a decision needs to be made. I elect people to make it, and then let them do it, giving only broad guidelines.
I believe the major purpose of government is defense of the people. (which includes police powers internally, though that is easily abused). As such, defense should be a lot. Though I would agree in general there the US budget is too high. (despite many other countries spending more as a percent of GDP) Thus I'm not worried about military spending so much as other spending, though we may in fact spend too much on the military.
Trade depends on things worth trading. If we can travel the distance it would be worth trading Iron for Platinum with some planet (which would be humans or aliens) that has a different situation from Earth. Last I checked turning mass quantities of one element into another (ie the old alchemist goal of turning lead to gold) wasn't cost effective.
Find a planet with lots of one valuable element, such as platinum (which is valuable in industry more than in jewelery) and a scarcity of something we have... Preferably this would be something not down a gravity well - It is fairly cheap to mine iron in the asteroid belt and send it (via solar sail) to a different solar system. Even if it takes 50 years to arrive it would be worthwhile investment. (Though care would need to be taken to be sure both sides were fullfilling their end of the bargin)
I don't know where you would find platinum in abundance, but we could use a lot more on earth than we have. I'm also unclear on where iron is scarce, but perhaps there is something else we have a lot of?
Luxury goods would be a good trade too. Millionairs would pay top dollar for trinkets from a different solar system. Care needs to be taken to not glut the market, but if they have rich people who like to show off their rare jewels it could work. (This set of stainless steal spoons was made on Earth - I payed a billion zorkmarks for it)
Zoos would find it worth it. Trade dogs, cats and elephants with a zoo there. Set up captive breading programs and our zoos can see some different animals for a change. (Dr Seusse would approve) Expensive, but I'd pay to see such animals.
I'm sure there are more, that is just what I can come up with off the top of my head.
Right. I read science fiction and Fantasy because they are good fiction. I don't read most other types of fiction because the main characters are often the type of people I would murder if I could get away with it. God would even call it a service to humanity and let me into heaven after doing that. (Not all, but a large portion of them are that type of people)
I cannot see myself doing the types of things people in fiction tend to do. I could see myself spending years studying magic, thus I like books about mages because I like to dream I'm the mage.
That is just one example. I read things that I like to read, I'm already known as a little strange though. Read what makes you happy.
Well of course, but you don't really know until after it is too late. There are clues, but as civilians we do not have access to them. (anyone with access to the clues won't talk, which is correct, but annoying for us trying to make judgments)
Sometimes a low success is all you have. Maybe we only have a 1 in 10 chance of shooting down an ICBM, but the cost of saving just 1 in 10 cities is worth it. Perhaps too we can increase the chance with a lot of work. All maybes. Diplomacy is nice, but it doesn't always work, particularly when the other guy is insane, such as North Korea
(They don't have ICBMs yet, but they are trying)
Then too, most of the costs are sunk before you find out. Perhaps the F22 wasn't worth all the effort. At the time we didn't know what, remote control planes that were useful seemed like science fiction. So we develop both to see which works. Now given the amount of money to finish the F22 (most of the costs are already spent either way so you can't count cost up to now, only what is left) is it worth it. The F22 might come out worth finishing even though there are better options, because it costs so little more to finish it that you may as well.
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This post to kfm-devel yesterday is important to bring up. Tests are useless if nobody runs them an fixes failures. Hopefully the khtml developers will be embarrassed enough by this post to /. + the mailing list message to stop and fix the problems.
Will the other projects? For that matter will kde clean this up? Fixing failing tests is often hard and boring.
Right now Wine support on *bsd is hit and miss. 90+% of the Wine developers only run Linux. They are not opposed to any other Unix, but they do nothing to help. Someone trying to get Wine running on *BSD will send a patch in, which will be accepted, but hours latter (sometimes before) some other patch is accepted in a different area that breaks Wine again.
Supporting OSX should clean a lot of this up. Just running on two platforms officially will force them to keep the code cleaner. This will make Wine useful to the other BSDs. Should also help Solaris support, which I understand works less often than *BSD.
This is not a company making a GUI on top of Wine. This is a company that hired the most active WINE developers and told them to focus on getting programing like Microsoft Office and iTunes working in Wine. They provide support for anyone who wants to use Wine but needs help. This includes those looking for an easy port to of their Windows Application to Linux, and those who just want to see more applications work on Linux that are now Windows only.
True it only works with certain programs. However there are more are more all the time.
Who cares? You rarely convert cubits to furlongs. (cubits are even part of the US system, they come from the Bible) I often convert divide a foot into thirds, which the US system does well, while the metric system doesn't.
Perhaps you should grow 2 more fingers. A base 12 system is much nicer to work with. You are used to a base 10 system, because you have 10 fingers.
Well latter updates suggest it didn't crash...
When doing a launch you want to be on the equator, and high. (for typical orbits, there are orbits where you want to be other places, but I'll ignore them for not) Russia doesn't come close to the equator. Siberia is closer to the North Pole than the Equator.
No mountain in Russia is big enough to make up for the distance from the equator. Russia does however have many submarines which can surface at any on the ocean, including the equator. (Not to mention getting a launch pad built on a mountain, and getting the rocket there isn't easy)
As for why subs, not ships, remember this goes back to the cold war. Ships are easy to track, spy satellites can see them, even after images are degraded to civilian levels. Submarines often stay underwater for 6 months at a time. Communication is generally done by ELF (extra low frequency - 5-60Hz or so) radios which are hard to do directional location on. In the event of a real war they can destroy the enemy after your country was destroyed. Mutually assured destruction, and even if you destroy all the land based missiles before they can launch there is enough plenty of time for the sub to get revenge. (Thank God it never came to that)
If Russia was to start a launch pad from scratch they would consider doing it on a ship. However they already have the subs.
The indies beat the internet at the old stuff game.
They have no shipping delay. Consider this: I ordered something Friday that I want, and today (5 days latter) it hasn't arrived yet! This is typical, they tell me not to worry about the order for more than 5 weeks yet! I want my order today.
Indies have it now. Your NES controller doesn't work? You could order one from the net, but you won't be playing head to head contra with your roommate tonight if you do. Drive to the indie in town and you have it in time for a game tonight.
That is something the internet cannot match. (At least not until airlines bring the price of same day shipping down a couple orders of magnitude)
Perhaps you need a lession in capitalism... Sure they used to supply those indie games, the problem is you were the only one buying them. Combine that with the hastels they went through to get them, and there was no money to be made there despite the higher prices.
I used to... The company has gone downhill since Sam Walton died though.
Back in the day they ran all the overpriced local stores with poor service out of town. Suddenly it wasn't worth my while to drive 30 miles to the nearest mall to do my shopping. (doing it all in one day) Everyone talks about the small business WalMart kills, but I recall getting bad service from them, so I was happy to see them gone. (Those few businesses that gave good service survived) They still have this part down.
Back in the day they used to be the "buy American" store. They worked with companies to get the same stuff as China made, made closer to home, by people I want to help. Now they are sending every supplier to China, despite China's evil practices. (Their human rights record stinks)
WalMart is not politically correct. Target won't sell guns because some people don't like them, WalMart does (as gun owner I having a source of Guns in town someplace that is open when I'm not at work). Target won't allow youth groups to hold a car-wash in the parking lot, WalMart does.
There are a few other things that WalMart is doing wrong, but I can't recall them right now.
In short, WalMart used to be a complete friend of your community. Now they are going downhill.
Script kiddies generally get bored before they get a working virus. If indeed the can follow the instructions to begin with.
Most viruses these days are written by organized crime. (Actually worm or trojan might be better terms) They create networks of infected computers, and then sell the network. spam is often sent from infected machines. There are a few other ways to earn money from an infected machine, but spam is the money maker.
Actually the size of the phone is dictated by comfort these days. The battery is the largest part of any phone, but with today's technology it will often go for days on a charge, which is more than most people (plug it in every night) need. Smaller phones are not happening because smaller phones don't fit in large hands well, and the buttons are already hard enough for the elderly to hit. They cannot make phones any smaller without a breakthrough of some sort.
Batteries come in standard sizes. (Many of them to choose from, but still standard) There is plenty of room for most of that "useless crap" in the case of the phone, and often there isn't a standard size battery that could take up the rest. The camera is the only thing that takes up any significant room, most of the other features are implemented on a chip. Even the camera can often fit behind the speaker where the batteries will not fit. (But remember each phone is different so this generalization will not apply to all of them)
Licensing of QT is not an issue if your company is any good at all. Standard procedure when doing these negotiations is to get a little clause "If you go out of business we get full rights". (Obviously written by a lawyer so it is more complex, but that is the idea)
QT doesn't even have a per-product shipped clause like most things, so it is less restrictive that most licenses.
Cost might be an issue, but you need to consider the cost of dealing with the alternatives if you consider it. GTK is free, but if it is more work to use, your total costs may be higher. (I don't know GTK so I don't know if this is true or not)
I don't want to carry all that every day. I just want it all with me.
Sometimes I want to take a picture, but most days I don't, so I never have a camera nearby. It would be nice if my phone had a useful camera. (It doesn't. I'd be happy with a single focus lens like the old 110 I had as a kid, but the resolution is too poor to take useful snapshots)
I don't want a separate game machine, I just want something I can waste 5 minutes on when I'm unexpectedly told to wait.
I don't want a separate PDA, I just want something that will remind me of my appointments, and allows me to easily enter more. (My current phone does the former, but not the latter)
I don't want an ebook, I just want a few (changeable) books around that I can read when I have a few minutes to kill. (see games above)
I never remember everything, and my pockets don't have room for it all either. Find a convergence that works I'd I'll use it. Sadly the implementation of convergence as it exists today is lacking. However it isn't the fault of convergence, it is the implementers' fault. I wish Apple would get into the cell phone market, and show everyone how to do it.
By far The daily WTF (Despite the name it is work safe). I check that every morning, and if I still haven't won I know I'm safe to program today, otherwise I change careers to something that doesn't involve computers.
It is important to point out that those old books are the old knowledge, but old knowledge wasn't better than ours today. Those books will teach you how to do things that have strong odds of killing you. Every reminder of safety is important, particularly when your instructions ignore them, so you have to consider it all of yourself.
There is something wrong with the geek who doesn't love that catalog and buy books from them once in a while. Always something interesting, even if you never build the projects. (Note, if you don't order you won't get the next catalog, so beware...)
There is something far more important than campaign contributions that you do control: votes. Those contributions are used to buy ads on TV and radio. Great as far as it goes, but there is no easy way to translate them into votes which is what they want.
People out on the street talking to strangers is far more effective than commercials, and it is something you can do. So find out how your representatives voted on the issue. Then decide if there is someone who is likely to be better running. (Consider third parties too!) Then every night knock on as bunch of doors in the neighborhood (with gerrymandering you need to be careful to keep in the right district...) and talk to your neighbors. If you are a good speaker and have the facts you could personally be enough to change the election.
Consider doing this as part of the campaign. That is join a party and go to all the meetings. Generally only 10-20 people attend in any area, and these are the people who make the decisions. Join with them, and you have a lot of power. The politicians will come to you (mostly for your help in getting elected), which is a perfect chance to talk to them about issues!
Remember votes count, nothing else. Money is just a proxy for votes, but it isn't a perfect proxy, nor even very good.
Depends on the petition. In all cases your signature is worth less than a residents, and in fact the presence of your signature lowers the influence of the petition. So you if you are out of state you should never sign a petition aimed at those in state. If you are in state you should make sure there that nobody out of state signs it. (and make sure it is honest, even though it is hard to detect cheaters, if it is detected your entire causes is lost)
If you are out of state your voice may or may not count. Any Representative considering a run for president in the near future will treat your voice as just less than the residents, because you are likely to remember. Representatives who don't plan on going that far will vary, most will forward your communication to your representative, and otherwise ignore it. Some will collect statistics on your position. These statistics are useful, if they have not opinion and their locals don't have a big position either way they will consider your opinion.
Don't forget that there is no law preventing you from making a contribution to an out of state candidate. So if someone really makes you mad you can help defeat them next time. Though in general your efforts are best focused close to home.
The most important thing to do is talk to your neighbors about the issue. If you come off as a reasonable person with a reasonable opinion they will consider the issue next time they vote. Tattooed freaks need not applie, no matter how smart you are - your first impression will kill you. (This is less so than in the past, but it is something to consider)
Did you account for digestion inefficiencies? As your numbers for aerobic or anaerobic running?
As you already noted, a car is significantly more mass. In fact VW's 1 liter car has similar efficiencies, despite being a car plus the man.
The problem is there are two different common senses in effect. One the one hand we know gravity exists, so common sense says it should exists everywhere. On the other hand there is no explination to account for gravity (We can measure it, but cannot explain it), and the some theories that when looked at alone seem to imply that gravity doesn't apply.
So they have proved one side right, but only at the expense of making some otherwise well tested theories fail.
Gravity is easy for the uneducated masses to understand. (by which I mean though without a degree in physics) It makes not sense to those who try to understand it more than the 'uneducated masses'.
Considering the relative efficiency of cars vs humans, abusing resources is right. You will need a lot more energy from food than you car burns. That is at a normal aerobic run pace, the Cheeta can to 60 mph, but only for a short anaerobic sprint, which is an order of magnitude less efficient yet.
Now if you were going to bike to work you might have a chance, so long as you were willing to stick to aerobic speeds. I'm not a doctor, but I suspect that to increase aerobic speeds you need to work on the circulation system first, not muscles. (the heart is a muscle, but only a small part of the system)
Get a car that runs on ethanol/biodiesel if you don't want to abuse resources - in the end it is more efficient than exercise. (but you won't live as long)
You cannot be a semi-pro, either you are a professional, or you are not.
You appear to have missunderstood the definition of professional. A professional is someone who gets paid to do something, an amateur is someone who does it as a hobby. Professionals have been trying to push your view that amateur is someone who isn't good, while a professional is good, but that does not follow. A good amateur doing something out of love will get better results than the professional who needs to make money. (Time is money, the pro doesn't have time to set up some of the best shots)
North Korea is not sane. Doesn't matter if the defense will work or not, because there is no reason to assume they won't attack if we treat them right.
I have not examined the F22 vs drone issue in details, so I'm not going to comment. You could be right. I elect politicians to make these decisions for me, but sadly many are more interested in pork for their area than sound government. So I have no idea if you are correct.
Not being in the military I'm not qualified to pass judgment on the merits of any program. I prefer to set goals and let experts fill them. In this case, the goal is to keep the US (and allies, but second to the US) from being attacked. I want them to do it as cheaply as possible, but no cheaper.
For me to say "scrap program X" would be foolish. I don't know the numbers. In fact some of the numbers I need to make the decision are rightfully classified. At some point a decision needs to be made. I elect people to make it, and then let them do it, giving only broad guidelines.
I believe the major purpose of government is defense of the people. (which includes police powers internally, though that is easily abused). As such, defense should be a lot. Though I would agree in general there the US budget is too high. (despite many other countries spending more as a percent of GDP) Thus I'm not worried about military spending so much as other spending, though we may in fact spend too much on the military.
Trade depends on things worth trading. If we can travel the distance it would be worth trading Iron for Platinum with some planet (which would be humans or aliens) that has a different situation from Earth. Last I checked turning mass quantities of one element into another (ie the old alchemist goal of turning lead to gold) wasn't cost effective.
Find a planet with lots of one valuable element, such as platinum (which is valuable in industry more than in jewelery) and a scarcity of something we have... Preferably this would be something not down a gravity well - It is fairly cheap to mine iron in the asteroid belt and send it (via solar sail) to a different solar system. Even if it takes 50 years to arrive it would be worthwhile investment. (Though care would need to be taken to be sure both sides were fullfilling their end of the bargin)
I don't know where you would find platinum in abundance, but we could use a lot more on earth than we have. I'm also unclear on where iron is scarce, but perhaps there is something else we have a lot of?
Luxury goods would be a good trade too. Millionairs would pay top dollar for trinkets from a different solar system. Care needs to be taken to not glut the market, but if they have rich people who like to show off their rare jewels it could work. (This set of stainless steal spoons was made on Earth - I payed a billion zorkmarks for it)
Zoos would find it worth it. Trade dogs, cats and elephants with a zoo there. Set up captive breading programs and our zoos can see some different animals for a change. (Dr Seusse would approve) Expensive, but I'd pay to see such animals.
I'm sure there are more, that is just what I can come up with off the top of my head.
Right. I read science fiction and Fantasy because they are good fiction. I don't read most other types of fiction because the main characters are often the type of people I would murder if I could get away with it. God would even call it a service to humanity and let me into heaven after doing that. (Not all, but a large portion of them are that type of people)
I cannot see myself doing the types of things people in fiction tend to do. I could see myself spending years studying magic, thus I like books about mages because I like to dream I'm the mage.
That is just one example. I read things that I like to read, I'm already known as a little strange though. Read what makes you happy.
Well of course, but you don't really know until after it is too late. There are clues, but as civilians we do not have access to them. (anyone with access to the clues won't talk, which is correct, but annoying for us trying to make judgments)
Sometimes a low success is all you have. Maybe we only have a 1 in 10 chance of shooting down an ICBM, but the cost of saving just 1 in 10 cities is worth it. Perhaps too we can increase the chance with a lot of work. All maybes. Diplomacy is nice, but it doesn't always work, particularly when the other guy is insane, such as North Korea (They don't have ICBMs yet, but they are trying)
Then too, most of the costs are sunk before you find out. Perhaps the F22 wasn't worth all the effort. At the time we didn't know what, remote control planes that were useful seemed like science fiction. So we develop both to see which works. Now given the amount of money to finish the F22 (most of the costs are already spent either way so you can't count cost up to now, only what is left) is it worth it. The F22 might come out worth finishing even though there are better options, because it costs so little more to finish it that you may as well.